The Invention of Decolonization: The Algerian War and the Remaking of France
- ISBN-10
- 080147454X
- ISBN-13
- 9780801474545
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 288
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2008
- Publisher
- Cornell University Press
- Author
- Todd Shepard
Description
In this account of the Algerian War's effect on French political structures and notions of national identity, Todd Shepard asserts that the separation of Algeria from France was truly a revolutionary event with lasting consequences for French social and political life. For more than a century, Algeria had been legally and administratively part of France; after the bloody war that concluded in 1962, it was other--its eight million Algerian residents deprived of French citizenship while hundreds of thousands of French pieds noirs were forced to return to a country that was never home. This rupture violated the universalism that had been the essence of French republican theory since the late eighteenth century. Shepard contends that because the amputation of Algeria from the French body politic was accomplished illegally and without explanation, its repercussions are responsible for many of the racial and religious tensions that confront France today. In portraying decolonization as an essential step in the inexorable "tide of history," the French state absolved itself of responsibility for the revolutionary change it was effecting. It thereby turned its back not only on the French of Algeria--Muslims in particular--but also on its own republican principles and the 1958 Constitution. From that point onward, debates over assimilation, identity, and citizenship--once focused on the Algerian "province/colony"--have troubled France itself. In addition to grappling with questions of race, citizenship, national identity, state institutions, and political debate, Shepard also addresses debates in Jewish history, gender history, and queer theory.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2006
- 316 pages
- Paperback
- Cornell University Press
Similar books
-
Voices of Decolonization: A Brief History with Documents
By Todd ShepardThis unprecedented volume shows how and why mid-twentieth-century decolonization transformed societies and cultures and continues to shape today’s world.
-
Decolonization and the French of Algeria: Bringing the Settler Colony Home
By Sung-Eun ChoiThis book is about Repatriation and how it became central to France's postcolonial understanding of decolonization, the Algerian past, and French identity.
-
Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics During the Decolonization of Algeria
By James D. Le SueurIntellectuals and Identity Politics During the Decolonization of Algeria James D. Le Sueur ... preparation of this book: Donna Bentley, Marlin Heckman, Elisabeth Anghel, Irene Morris, Diana Quevedo, Mary L. Peters, and Betty Caldwell.
-
Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture
By Kristin RossIn each of the book's four chapters, a central object of mythical image is refracted across a range of discursive and material spaces: social and private, textual and cinematic, national and international.
-
The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire
By Andrew Thompson, Martin ThomasThis exceptionalist interpretation seems to be backed up by a superficial analysis of the end of Italian colonialism. While the major colonial empires underwent long, complex, and often painful ends, Italian colonialism seemed to ...
-
Making Algeria French: Colonialism in Bône, 1870-1920
By David ProchaskaThe Algerians eat yogurt and drink whey , but it is the Maltese who supply goat's milk from the goats they herd , and it is the French who make cheese and butter . Tobacco is one of the few commodities dominated by the Algerians from ...
-
The Invention of the Maghreb: Between Africa and the Middle East
By Abdelmajid HannoumIn this book, Abdelmajid Hannoum demonstrates how the invention of the Maghreb started long before the conquest of Algiers and lasted until the time of independence, and beyond, to our present.
-
Sex, France, and Arab Men, 1962–1979
By Todd ShepardHowever partial, any list must include: Henry Abelove, Nada Alfiouni, Sarah al-Matari, Farid Azfar, Beth Bailey, Nora Bendaouadji, Omar Benlaâla, Eva Bischoff, Will Bishop, Jennifer Boittin, Julian Bourg, Catherine Brun, ...
-
Blaming Islam
By John R. BowenIn Blaming Islam, John Bowen uncovers the myths about Islam and Muslim integration into Western society, with a focus on the histories, policy, and rhetoric associated with Muslim immigration in Europe, the British experiment with sharia ...
-
Decolonizing "prehistory": Deep Time and Indigenous Knowledges in North America
By Gesa Mackenthun, Christen MucherUsing an interdisciplinary approach, this volume empowers Indigenous voices and offers a nuanced understanding of the American deep past.